Natural History Museum wins two Visit London awards

13 December 2010

Children enjoying the Museum's free galleries.

The Natural History Museum has won 2 Evening Standard People’s Choice Awards, the Best London for Free Experience and the Best Family Fun, which are part of the BT Visit London Awards 2010 announced last week.

Visit London is the official visitor organisation for the city and Visit London Awards are a celebration of the attractions, people and businesses that make London a world-class city.

Madeleine May was the 25 millionth visitor to the Museum since free entry began in December 2001.

‘It’s wonderful to have been awarded these accolades especially by the people of London themselves,’ says Sharon Ament, the Museum's Director of Public Engagement.

‘We know that our 4.5 million visitors love the time that they spend with the dinosaurs or in the Darwin Centre and winning the Evening Standard awards confirms that we are providing a truly memorable experience for young people and families.

‘It’s a testament to the hard work of our teams who help our visitors to have the best time that they possibly can 362 days of the year.

Record visitors a year

The Natural History Museum attracted its record number of visitors in the last year with more than 4.5 million visiting the exciting exhibits, events and exhibitions.

Free at the Museum

The Diplodocus in the Central Hall is always a spectacular greeting to visitors entering the Museum. Known as Dippy, it is a cast and was made from 5 different Diplodocus skeletons over 18 months and has been at the Museum since 1905.

The Museum's interactive film Who do you think you really are? uses cutting edge technology to bring the evolutionary past to life in front of your eyes

And always popular with families is the Dinosaur gallery with its terrifying giant animatronic T.rex. Visitors can explore the 160 million years of the dinosaur era.

Prince William opened the Darwin Centre, a dramatic new public space, in September 2009. Visitors interact with some of the 300 scientists that work at the Museum finding out about their research and how they look after the 22 million specimens housed there.

Daily Spirit Collection Tours let visitors get a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the 27km of shelves and tanks holding specimens such as a giant squid and a colossal squid.

The newly launched interactive film Who do you think you really are? uses cutting edge technology to bring the evolutionary past to life. It includes a virtual dinosaur and early human, brought to life in front of your eyes with augmented reality.